Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic has posted an interesting article over at The Guardian : Virtual love: is your Valentine an avatar? The article looks at the rise of digital romance and looks at virtual boyfriend and girlfriend apps, the website Tinder, the issue of cybersex briefly and even has a mention of Second Life. I don’t know much about those virtual boyfriend and girlfriend apps and the first I head of Tinder was via a recent story regarding some major websites being down for a short period of time recently, Tinder was mentioned. When I asked some of the folk at work about it after that news story there was much mirth and very little belief that I had never heard of Tinder!
The article itself links to a website that has advice for lovemaking in virtual worlds such as Second Life :
Virtual communities, such as Second Life, recreate all aspects of the relationship cycle, including pregnancy and birth. In fact, there are now multiple guides on how to have sex in a virtual world, which perhaps suggests that physical skills are not necessarily transferable to our avatars. One salient difference is that most avatars are not equipped with genitals. As an expert notes: “The first thing you need to do, get yourself a penis/vagina. Here’s a piece of advice: Second Life is a visual medium. Hence it does have a certain importance that you choose a penis that actually looks realistic and is in-line with the colour of your skin.” Other suggestions include upgrading looks – because “with the prefab [Second Life] avatar you will find it very difficult to get laid” – and making an effort to role-play a seductive or erotic situation. Indeed, directness and bluntness is as discouraged as in the analogue world.
The website it links to even goes into the murky world of the talking penis. I’m really not a big fan of the Second Life penis, indeed I don’t find it very realistic at all. There would be a world full of pain if you had to walk around with one of those all day outside of Second Life. Obviously there are some advantages, the detachable nature of the appendage would have uses and of course your partner could hide it when they were miffed at you, but realism isn’t something I’d associate with that accessory.
A more interesting aspect of Second Life and virtual world relationships comes near the end of the article.
Continue reading “The Guardian Talk About The Second Life Penis & Virtual Romance”
